


Only One

by wandering_gypsy_feet



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27520264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wandering_gypsy_feet/pseuds/wandering_gypsy_feet
Summary: The heroes always think that Belle is one of them.They forget that she loves her husband - the good, the bad, and the ugly in him. And if helping them comes at the price of hurting him, then she will only ever have one answer.AKA the scene I wished we'd gotten once in canon.
Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold
Comments: 24
Kudos: 108





	Only One

**Author's Note:**

> JUST ONCE I WOULD HAVE LIKED THE SHOW TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT BELLE SUFFERS NO FOOLS AND IS CANONICALLY THE SMARTEST PERSON IN THE ROOM AT ALL TIMES. 
> 
> i have no idea where this fits with timeline. all i know is that just once i would have liked to see Belle owning the way she straddles the line between 'hero' and 'wife of the villain' without the angst bullshit. 
> 
> because that's just not the Belle I know and love.

“Belle!”

The little bell above the shop door gave a cheery little jingle when the crowd of people burst through it and Belle looked up from where she was painstakingly copying one ancient ledger’s transactions to a fresh, clean one. It was the usual band - Emma, David, Snow - with a few familiar faces. Ruby, Archie, and Leroy were fast to follow, everyone panting and talking over each other until Belle had no idea what any of them were saying. 

“— we need it to find the —”

“— and we didn’t see the —”

“— could you go to —“

“— I thought that you might —“

“Wait, wait, wait.” Belle’s hands went up, frowning at the onslaught of information. “One at a time, please.”

“Belle, we need you to help us find something.” Emma stepped forward and Belle shut the ledger.

“Of course,” she said instantly. “What is it? Do you have any idea of where it might be?”

“Well…” Emma trailed off, a bit awkwardly, glancing back at her companions.

“What?” Belle asked, her stomach sinking slightly.

“It’s something your husband has,” Snow explained, coming to Emma’s side. “It’s an old charm bracelet.”

“Charm bracelet,” Belle echoed, frowning slightly.

“The charms are clues that will help lead us to—” Ruby started to explain but Belle shook her head, turning to Snow.

“You said Rumple has it?” she asked and Snow glanced back at her husband, then back to Belle with a somewhat forced, pained smile.

“Well, it was a trade, you see,” she explained hesitantly. “He wanted the bracelet and we needed a spell to help us awhile back. So we gave up the bracelet. But that was before we knew that we would need it.”

“Uh huh.” Belle narrowed her eyes slightly. “So… Rumple traded you for the bracelet. Now you want to trade back?”

“We don’t have time for a trade,” Ruby said impatiently.

“Can you just help us find it?” Emma pleaded and Belle’s hands, atop the glass case, trembled slightly. “It’s got to be somewhere in here, it’s silver and small, there are like a dozen charms…”

“I know where it is,” Belle said shortly and everyone turned to look at her expectantly. She knew just the bracelet and just the case it was in, amongst other jewelry.

“Can you give it to us?” David asked her, extending his hand.

“No,” Belle stated flatly and everyone stared blankly. There was silence for a long second and then Leroy broke it with a rather indignant,

“Why not?”

“Because you’ll have to pay for it or trade again,” Belle told him, a bit peeved. “That was the deal you made with my husband.”

“Belle, you’re suppose to be one of the good ones, a hero,” Leroy cried. “You should give us the bracelet because we need it, because it’s the right thing to do!”

“Leroy,” Archie chided him quickly, but Belle saw that Ruby, Snow, David, and Emma all had the same thought. She could see it there in their faces, but she stood firm.

“There are rules,” she reminded them quietly. “You traded it to my husband for something else. It’s his. There are rules to all this. Just because we’re heroes doesn’t mean that we don’t have to follow them too. A deal is a deal. Terms are terms. And for as long as some of you have known my husband, you should know that everything comes with a price - everything.”

All of them were silent, staring at her in what appeared to be flabbergasted shock. Belle refused to budge. Her annoyance was not some surprise thing; it had been building for while now. It stemmed from the fact that while these heroes and their quests were justified, it always seemed to come at the sake of her sanity. One minute they thought her husband was the savior of the town; the next, the devil.

They knew who he was. They knew the costs of making deals with him. It wasn’t as though he ever tried to be anything else or lied about who he was. Yet again and again, through hubris or plain stupidity, people thought that they could trick him or evade consequences simply by virtue of being a hero when they really should have known that they could never. Not against him. So why did they keep trying?

“It wouldn’t cost you anything to hand the bracelet over, Belle.” Archie was apparently trying to appeal to her rational side. Belle eyed him coolly.

“Except perhaps a fight with my husband, which seems like a rather big cost. I told you, buy or trade for it. But if it is Rumple’s fair and square, I’m not handing it over.”

“You don’t know what it’s like,” Leroy accused her. “You’ve never had to make a deal with him, because you’re his wife and he just gives you whatever you want.”

“Leroy!” both Snow and Emma yelled at him but it was the last straw for Belle. Quivering, she drew herself up to her full height.

“I’ve made more deals with him than anyone in this room.” her voice only trembled slightly. “The only difference is, I’ve never been any delusion that I could outsmart him. And I always read the terms and conditions, unlike all of you. Now I’m going to have to ask you all to leave.” a single finger, pointed at the door. “Now.”

Emma looked like she wanted to say something more, but Snow caught her wrist and tugged her away. Archie and David both had to manhandle Leroy out. Only Ruby lingered, something on her face that looked like admiration and annoyance. But in the end, she too left and Belle was alone, standing at the counter and feeling like crying and destroying something all at once.

“Well, well, well.” soft footsteps preluded a gentle pressure on her hips; her husband had apparently been in the back room and was now making his entrance.

“How much of that did you hear?” Belle muttered, as his arms wrapped around her and gave her a soft squeeze.

“Long enough to hear you defend me against them, dearie.” Rumple turned her so that she was facing him. Belle expected to see anger or frustration there; after all, that was how she felt. But instead he was staring down at her with open admiration and devotion, as soft as he ever was.

“I just hate that one minute I’m some great hero for helping them and then the next they act like I’m some crazy woman for marrying you,” she explained, biting her lip. “I hate that they don’t accept you for who you are. Just the way you are.”

“No,” he replied, pushing a lock of her hair back. “Only you, Belle. You’re the only one who sees the man behind the monster. The only one who reads the terms and conditions and actually thinks about the consequences. And the only one who has never tried to break a deal with me.” he tilted his head, that same quizzical expression he’d had when he’d asked her why she’d returned to him in the Dark Castle. The answer then was the same answer now.

“Because I love you,” she whispered.

“Because you are wholly and utterly unique is it,” he muttered back, pressing a kiss to her forehead, right between her eyes. “Because there is no one like you, in this realm or any other.” a kiss to both eyelids. “And I love you, from now until my dying breath.” a kiss to the tip of her nose. “My darling Belle.” a final one, to her lips.

“Surely I’m not the only one who’s kept a deal with you.” after a few knee wobbling, earth-shattering kisses, Belle could no longer hold back her disbelief.

“The only one,” he repeated, still peppering her with tiny kisses. “To do so willingly and joyously, even though you got perhaps the worst deal of all. It was not a treasured possession or a firstborn child I made you part with. It was your freedom, your way of life. And yet….” he shook his head. “You stayed. There’s not another like you Belle.”

“I knew the terms of the deal.” and she did. She always did. Whatever deal her husband made her, Belle always knew all the terms.

“And that is why I find you irresistible.” he wrapped her up in his arms again and Belle thought of everyone who had told her not to love him, that she would only find ruin and heartbreak with him. But Belle had no illusions as to who he was. And she loved what she saw, even when she rather did not like him.

“I will make you a deal,” she declared and felt the deep rumble in his chest when he chuckled.

“And what’s that, wife?”

“I will always defend you against the heroes, when they pretend to think better of themselves than you,” she said and his eyebrow raised.

“And in return?” he questioned her.

“Carry me to the backroom and love me,” she answered, smiling. He hoisted her, a bit roughly, into his arms and smirked.

“Your terms are agreeable, Mrs. Gold.”

“I thought they might be.” she held onto him while they went for the back. 

Belle loved and understood her husband. She did. And if she was the only one who did, then that was fine by her.

**Author's Note:**

> reviews are love, reviews are kidnesses!!!


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